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Show WILLIAM W. ASTPR ABANDONED AMERICA TO GAIN SOCIAL FAME. Anil Now llmU lllmirif Mllllooolro Without (nonlry, limine !ln Tbot hr tho I tlnro or VUlas Hot toil Olhrr KIUh Kobleo. The story of William Waldorf Astor, who grossly offended English society a short time ago by Insulting Sir Archibald Milne, a particular friend ot the Prince ot Wales, aul who Is now ostracised by the smsrt set, which baaka In the prince a favor, 13 that of a man without a country Ho began life with unlimited wealth and boundless ambition He still has both, for the latter has ncter been satisfied About twenty years ago a group of young men among the rich New Yorker York-er were starting out In life, all with some political ambition and all backed up by an old family and a big rent roll None ot them promised eo much and failed so dismally as William Waldorf Astor He Intended to I President of the United Utiles He la now a man without a country, disappointed cynical, cyn-ical, with no future before him at 60 He waa the son nf John Jacob Astor w" 't'lSs SU1 WILLIAM WALDOHF A8T0R III, the heed of the great family who came from tbe little village ot Waldorf, Wal-dorf, (lermany, about 120 yeara ago, and started In life aa butchers and fur traders When William Waldorf rame Into the world the Astora owned nine per cent uf tho real estate In New York city, and bad taken social precedence prece-dence over the old Knickerbocker families, fam-ilies, who once held themselves aloof from a man who peddled fura on his back, Astor wss educated at the taw school of Columbia University He Imagined himself n second Disraeli and began simultaneously a career In politics and In literature He waa elected Rtate aenator. He ran for Congress to succeed Levi !. Jfrfrlon and was defeated by the late Itoswell Flower He waa appointed minister to Italy by President Arthur He dlstln- wished himself there by scatterlng( MM golden scudl wllh n lavish hand. In- MM cldentally he got along with bl minis- -MM terlal duties without dlscredt to the government Nothing came up to de MM mand diplomacy, and Mr Astor waa EM equal to the situation He returned ajSj homo and threw himself Into politic HM In New York State Perhaps It would MG be moro correct to say that he threw HI himself at politics lie worked very fijU hsrd, and he waa very much lo earn- WE est, but his efforts came to nothing. .B He gave his money freely and he gave 'BJ his time without stint Hut he failed MB to connect with the people, and that la -JsSH an essential element to success In "H Amerlrsn politics, aa Mr Astor found HI out He wrote a novel called Vnlen- MS tlno, and followed It wllh another MB Italian romance called Btona In the Mj Judgment of critic they had rontld- erable literary merit There u a SB Isik of the two great things, power MM and Imagination There were p6llsh In ami scholarly ability to a good degreA Bra Hut here sgaln Mr Aslor failed lo con jug nect with the people ru To crown his political and literary MR disappointments dispute arose as 16 I whether Mrs William Waldorf Astor or Mrs John Jacob Astor was entitled to be called "Mrs Astor" In hurl, waa John Jacob Astor ur William Waldorf Wal-dorf Astor the head of the family? Boclety settled the question In favor of the popular John Jacob, and William Will-iam Waldorf In pique, built next door to his cousin the big and fashionable hotel the Waldorf Astor House Then he gathered up his household good and moved lo lindon II disposed ot as much of his property In America a he could nnd Invested his money In England He rented his residence and declared publicly and often fbal America waa not his country He bei came a naturallied Englishman and for a couple of years was apparently an Intimate friend at the Prince of Wales It wss rumored that he wait to be given a peerage and marry a daughter of the prince for he I now a widower Then gossip connected his name with that ot Ijvly Randolph Churchill and recently with thai of Mrs Otdcn Ooelet. of New York r All the time Mr Astnr has attempted attempt-ed to secure a firm footing In English sodety He bought the Pall Mall (la- tette nnd Pall Mall lludget and l) started the Pall Mall Magaxtne, all & ultra-Tory nnd catering to the smart M set He bought from the Uuke of J Westminster, the richest man In Ens- IS land, the handsomest seat on tho 1 Thamce-Cllveden Then Mr Astot-built Astot-built n high wall around the park, stationed sta-tioned guards, and warned the publl lo keep off of his grounds Buch a - thing I not usual with English conn- M try gentlemen and everybody bristled jfl with Indignation at the Amcrlran . anob, aa they railed him Oradually j ijj Mr Astor has become the "beta nolr" (JP of pretty nearly all classes ot English- "1 men He la 10000 mile from a peer- v. age, snd probably now fully aa far. S" frorn'n rhyaPilrsVlD?roomiri con- Ml plrunus use to'risy I a a warning; to American who will not keep In touch wllh their rountrymtn |